By: CJ Siewert

ST. PAUL, Minn. – In the marquee match-up of day one of the Wildwood Lodge Volleyball Classic, Concordia University was able to hold off No. 20 BYU-Hawaii in all three sets for a 3-0 shutout Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears defense appeared shaky at times, but came through in the clutch as CU won the sets by scores of 27-25, 26-24 and 25-21.
 
BYU-Hawaii quickly jumped out to a five-point lead at 8-3 in the first set, taking advantage of four errors by the Golden Bears. CU crept back into the game and cut the deficit to one at 12-11, but the Seasiders scored four unanswered points for a 16-11 lead. The two teams went back and forth until an attack error gave BYU-Hawaii a 25-24 lead, where CU head coach Brady Starkey took a timeout. His squad came out of the break and scored three unanswered points for the 27-25 decision.
 
The second set started out much better for the Bears as they led 8-3 early and increased that lead to 15-7. The Seasiders didn’t lie down, though, and replied with six-straight points. Katie Habeck (Farmington, Minn. ) broke the scoring spree with a kill to give CU a 16-13 lead, but the Seasiders went right back at it with three unanswered points.
 
Trailing 21-20, BYU-Hawaii won four of the next five points for a 24-22 lead, but the Golden Bears came through in the clutch once again and scored the final four points of the set for a 26-24 win.
 
The third set was another back and forth battle as the longest scoring streak was four straight by CU early on for a 6-4 lead. Neither team had a streak longer than three points from there on and the score remained within three points until the home team took a 22-17 lead and eventually claimed the 25-21 final.
 
Cassie Haag (Plymouth, Minn. ) led the Golden Bears with 14 kills in 25 attempts (.520), while Kayla Koenecke (Delano, Minn. ) and Ellie Duffy (Fridley, Minn. ) also tallied double figure kills with 12 and 11, respectively. Duffy posted her second double-double of the day with 12 digs as well.
 
As usual, Amanda Konetchy (Victoria, Minn. ) directed traffic on the offensive side with 43 assists. Lisa Atkinson (Northfield, Minn. ) got the start at libero and responded with a team-high 13 digs. 
 
For the Seasiders, Lauren Hagemeyer led the team with 13 kills and Ying Chun Chen assisted on 35 of the team’s 41 kills.
 
Concordia will take on No. 10 Hillsdale on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for day two of the tournament.